Good Read: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

After reading Essentialism, a book written by Greg McKeown, I started to think about my own workload and priorities and self-analyze how helpful and productive I think they really are.

In his book, Greg McKeown concisely describes what, in my view, is one of the great ills of our modern society – task saturation, over-commitment and enormous societal pressure to constantly take on more and excel at it all. In other words, “go big, go strong, give it all you’ve got, all the time.” The feeling that we need to constantly take more on, then address tasks quickly to offload them, and make room for more in turn creates an environment where it is difficult to take the time to pause, slow the brain, and think critically – what is most important at any given moment.

Essentialism is a relatively short and concise book that eludes readers to contemplate the more is less theory since our society is programmed to default to saying “yes” to everything to appear helpful, organized and productive. The majority of today’s workforce allow work and business to be life priority with a focus on always wanting more. In the process, it’s easy to lose sight of what is important – or as Greg put it: What is “Essential.”

In order to fight back against this disease, Greg advocates the “Continuous, Perpetual and Disciplined Pursuit of Less but Better “in every aspect of our lives. Greg not only describes the issue(s) such as over-commitment and the obligatory need to say “yes” but also provides practical tools describing how to change behavior and become an essentialist. Additionally, he argues that small, incremental changes provide a much greater chance of success in the long run as opposed to making big, drastic changes right away.

While this book is universally applicable, it should be a required reading in all MBA programs, leadership seminars and especially entrepreneurship courses.